User Score
0 votes
Britta Lion-Franz and her sister Marianne Lion grew up Jewish in Aachen, Germany. In 1937, when the two were 9 and 12, the sisters and their parents were forced to flee to the US. Their father, Curt Lion, owned an elegant fashion store in Aachen, which was acquired by director Walter Wehmeyer’s grandfather before they fled. How did the transaction take place? Did the Lion family ever receive compensation? Were the two businessmen able to avoid the “Nazi-ization” and confiscation of all Jewish property? Wehmeyer tells this fascinating tale using archival records, letters, and photographs. He discovers Britta in American, long residing in Salem, Oregon. The Lion family’s tale would remain untold were it not for an inquisitive filmmaker in search of his own family history.
Director
Status
Released
Original Language
EN
When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".
